ASSIST Conference 2008 – ‘The Final Frontier’

The 2008 ASSIST Conference was deemed the best yet by exhibitors and delegates alike.

Here are some of the comments:

Charles Cooper, NEC Trailers - ‘a great exhibition, we should do some good business from it'

Bruce Geary, Clackmannanshire Council - ’The speakers were superb’

Tom Carlton, Muller - 'A most enjoyable conference'

Bill Kennedy. Tayside Contracts - ‘It was obvious that there was a lot of hard work put in. The conference was excellent’

The Conference theme was 'The Final Frontier' and although Mr Spock didn’t appear and the Chair of ASSIST, Catherine Nelson, did not get beamed up by Scotty there was a lot to talk about.

Keynote speaker Lady Marie Stubbs was both thought-provoking and highly entertaining. Alastair MacNish was as controversial as usual as he spelt out his own thoughts on the Concordat. Iain Ramsay told the conference about the changes at Learning and Teaching Scotland and Fergus Chambers gave a very illuminating talk on the catering operation at the Beijing Olympics as well as plans for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

On the second day workshops took place with Gordon MacMillan, Charlie MacLean Bristol and Diane Leask. Toni McIlindon brought us up to date on legal implications for 2008/2009 and the conference was brought to an end by Mo Shapiro who made us all imagine problem people as dots in the distance.

The exhibition was a great success with 11 new suppliers attending. 3663 won the Best Stand award.

The ASSIST Chair Award went to Anne Lennie, of the City of Edinburgh Council, for services to the industry and The ASSIST Best Achiever Award was given to St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston. Andrea Bradley collected the award on behalf of the school.

A terrific conference once again and the ASSIST Committee would like to thank all delegates and suppliers for taking part.